fellow Protestants, in these sentences: "The very men
whose own brethren had perished in France were not hearty or unanimous in
execrating the deed. There were Huguenots who thought that their party had
brought ruin on itself, by provoking its enemies and following the rash
counsels of ambitious men. This was the opinion of their chief, Theodore
Beza, himself," etc. The belief of Beza that the French Protestants had
merited even so severe a chastisement as this at the hands of God, by
reason of the ambition of some and the unbelief or lack of spirituality of
others, was a very different thing from failing to execrate the deed with
heartiness. If the words of Bullinger to Hotman, quoted in support of the
first sentence ("sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere
tentant") really referred to Protestants at all, it can only have been to
an insignificant number who took the position from a love of singularity,
and who were below contempt. The execration of the deed was pre-eminently
unanimous and hearty.

[1216] Gaberel, ii. 326.

[1217] Beza to T. Tilius, Dec. 3, 1572, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du
prot. fr., vii. 17.

[1218] Gaberel, ii. 330-333.

[1219] Nearly four years later, on the 8th of June, 1576, Monsieur de
Chandieu received the news of the publication of Henry III.'s edict of
peace permitting the refugees to return home. All the Protestants who had
not adopted Switzerland as their future country congregated at Geneva. A
solemn religious service was held in the church of Saint Pierre, where
French and Genevese united in that favorite Huguenot psalm (the 118th)--

La voici l'heureuse journee
Que Dieu a faite a plein desir--

the same which the soldiers of Henry IV. set up on the field of Coutras
(Agrippa d'Aubigne, iii. 53). M. de Chandieu then rendered thanks in
tender and affectionate terms to all the departments of government,
exclaiming: "We shall always regard the Church of Geneva as our
benefactress and our mother; and from all the French reformed churches
will arise, every Sunday, words of blessing, in remembrance of your
admirable benefits to us." The next day the refugees started for their
homes, accompanied, as far as the border, by a great crowd of citizens.
Gaberel, ii. 337, 338.

[1220] Les ambassadeurs de Charles IX. aux cantons suisses protestants,
Bulletin, iii. 274-276. A copy was sent by Beza to the consuls of
Montauban, together with a letter, Oct. 3. 1572. Also Mem.